Our view: Standing up for fellow student

Published: Saturday, May 4, 2013 5:30 a.m. CDT

The Northwest Herald editorial board offers this week’s thumbs up and thumbs down:

Thumbs up: To the student at Marlowe Middle School in Lake in the Hills who held a 24-hour walkathon event Thursday and Friday to raise money for the Opening Doors With Teagan foundation, which strives to provide financial support for families affected by pediatric cancer. It was founded last year in honor of Teagan Haniszewski, 7, a first-grader at District 158’s Chesak Elementary, who spent the past five years successfully battling pediatric brain cancer that went into remission last year. It’s touching to see these middle-schoolers standing up for a fellow student.

Thumbs down: To the Fox Valley Conference, for not reaching out to add Marian Central’s athletic teams. The FVC needs another team, with Johnsburg set to bolt for the Big Northern Conference. And Marian Central could use a new home, with at least seven schools leaving the Suburban Christian Conference. That number could rise in the near future. The move makes too much sense to ignore any longer.

Thumbs up: To local firefighters and other emergency responders everywhere. Three local firefighters were treated at and released from Centegra Hospital – McHenry this week after suffering heat-related injuries while battling a fire that left two Crystal Lake homes uninhabitable and damaged three others. Each day that firefighters, police officers and other emergeny personnel go to work, they face potential danger to themselves for the sake of protecting the community. We can’t say thank you enough.

Thumbs down: To people who are thoughtless enough to make bomb threats or threats of violence toward schools or public places requiring a large response from law enforcement and school officials. Such a threat was made Wednesday, forcing the disruption of classes at all schools in Alden-Hebron District 19 and causing needless anxiety for students and staff and wasting the time of police officers who had to verify that the threat was false. Anyone caught causing this kind of disruption should be made an example of in criminal court.

Thumbs up: To Don Kopsell and Mike Lesperance. Kopsell, the outgoing Nunda Township highway commissioner, and Lesperance, the newly elected highway commissioner, put aside political differences to help residents in need during last month’s flooding. Although the two went after each other in a highly competitive election earlier this year, they came together for the good of the township to help its residents. Other elected officials could learn a lesson from these two.